As one of Japan's most talented and highest regarded
actors of his generation,
HIROYUKI SANADA
(Oishi) has garnered
the
attention of American and
foreign audiences
with more
than 50 films and a Japanese
Oscar to his name.
Sanada will be seen in
The Railway Man, alongside
Colin Firth and Nicole
Kidman. The epic true story based on Eric Lomax's
autobiography centers around two men haunted by
their experiences on the notorious Death Railway in
WWII who are brought together for a devastating final
confrontation. Sanada plays Nagase, the interpreter at
the Japanese prison camp during WWII where Eric
Lomax (Firth), is held prisoner. The film premiered at
this year's Toronto Film Festival. The film was picked up
for domestic distribution by The Weinstein Company,
and will be released in the U.S. in 2014. Lionsgate
International has set up deals for international release
starting in December 2013, including Australia, Japan,
Spain and the U.K.

Sanada is currently in production on SyFy Channel's
original series Helix, in which he is a part of an elite
team of CDC researchers investigating a mysterious
viral outbreak in the Arctic Circle—an outbreak which
has implications for all of mankind. The show premieres
in January 2014.

Sanada was last seen in James Mangold's action
feature The Wolverine, opposite Hugh Jackman, for 20th
Century Fox. In the film, Sanada starred as Shingen,
a crime boss and major enemy of Wolverine. The film
was released on July 26, 2013.

Sanada started his career in film when he was five
years old, and later won the Japanese Academy Award
for his role in The Twilight Samurai, where he played
a mid-19th century low-ranking samurai employed
as a bureaucrat. The film was also nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. On
the heels of this success, Sanada made his mark with
American audiences when he starred alongside Tom
Cruise in Ed Zwick's The Last Samurai.

Since then, Sanada has been seen in a number of
notable features including James Ivory's The City of
Your Final Destination, alongside Anthony Hopkins;
The White Countess, opposite Ralph Fiennes; Danny
Boyle's sci-fi thriller Sunshine, with Chris Evans and
Rose Byrne; the action-thriller Speed Racer, alongside
Susan Sarandon and Emile Hirsch; Brett Ratner's Rush
Hour 3; Chen Kaige's The Promise, a Chinese epic
fantasy romance; and the terrifying Ringu series.

On television, Sanada had a guest-starring arc on
the first season of ABC's Revenge, where he played
Kiyoshi Takeda, Emily's (Emily Van Camp) mentor
and spiritual advisor who offers her the manual to life
and the cautions that come with it. He also starred in
multiple episodes of the Primetime Emmy Award-winning
series Lost, in which he played the role of
Dogen in the final season. Beyond television, Sanada
became one of the few foreign actors to tour with the
Royal Shakespeare Company in a production of King
Lear, with Nigel Hawthorne.

Sanada has a black belt in karate, and is trained in
Japanese traditional dance and Japanese Swordplay
Tate. He currently resides in Los Angeles.